Former Scott Walker aide's partner fined for texting teen

The domestic and business partner of a top aide to Gov. Scott Walker while he was Milwaukee County executive was sentenced Thursday to a $2,148 fine and 50 hours of community service for contributing to the delinquency of a child.

Brian B. Pierick must complete the community service by mid-June or else serve a 10-day jail sentence, Waukesha County Circuit Judge Patrick Haughney ordered.

Pierick, 49, pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor last month as a part of a deal in which prosecutors dropped felony charges of child enticement and causing a child to expose his genitals. Pierick thought he was communicating with an adult when he exchanged sexually explicit text messages with what turned out to be a 17-year-old boy in the fall of 2010, according to his lawyer, Maura McMahon.

Pierick lived and worked with Timothy Russell, who was Walker's deputy chief of staff and housing director when Walker was county executive. Russell was sentenced last month to two years in prison for stealing more than $21,000 from a veterans organization Walker assigned him to head.

Prosecutors discovered explicit pictures of boys or young men on computers seized from the home Pierick shared with Russell as part of a John Doe probe that's focused on aides and associates of Walker. Prosecutors also retrieved text message conversations from cellphones from the Pierick-Russell home, which led to the enticement charges against Pierick.

Pierick sent text messages to the 17-year-old boy on Nov. 21, 2010, to try to get him to join him for sex inside his van, which was parked in Waukesha, according to a criminal complaint. The boy rejected the offer.

Pierick faced up to 28 ½ years in prison and $13,000 in fines on the original charges.

Pierick had worked with Russell doing opposition research for Walker's bid for governor, according to Milwaukee County prosecutors. Pierick also worked briefly for the state Department of Public Instruction but was fired after he was charged with child enticement a year ago.

About Steve Schultze

Schultze joined the Milwaukee Journal staff in 1985, covering state government and politics from the paper's state capitol bureau in Madison. He also served as Madison bureau chief for five years. Following the Journal-Sentinel merger in 1995, Schultze shifted to the paper's investigative/enterprise team, where he co-authored series on abusive teachers in the Milwaukee Public Schools, influence peddling in the administration of Gov. Tommy Thompson and shortcomings of a $3 billion regional sewer system upgrade. In 2007, he began covering Milwaukee County government. Schultze is a graduate of the University of Colorado School of Journalism.